Healing Hugs

Healing Hugs

“Grandmother. Grandmother.”

He tugged and tugged at the sleeve of her smock.    

Smell of wood smoke from the supper fires mingled with aroma of meat roasting, stew bubbling and midsummer heat. Grandmother turned from her cooking to be greeted by her five year old grandson, a question in her eyes.  He stretched his small brown arms up to her and presented her with a wriggling black puppy, one of the litter from the stray bitch dog adopted by the summer camp.

“Can you help him?  He’s hurt.”

Putting the stew off of the fire, she took the puppy and the boy

into her arms. Examining the wounded puppy, she saw only a little nick on one floppy brown ear. Grandmother put the puppy down just as the mother came looking for her missing baby.  The mother dog, all in one motion, lay down and pulled her little one to her with her two front paws, all the while licking the little nick on the pup’s ear.  The little one cuddled into his mother and began suckling while he was being cleaned.

The little boy’s grandmother said "See how she is cleaning and cuddling all at the same time. Healing is not just about fixing the outsides.  Healing is when love from inside of us reaches our sores and hurt places.  When we love the insides, and fix broken places on the outside at the same time, healing can begin."

The little boy gravely nodded his head, big brown eyes watching the nameless dog and her pup. “So," he said slowly "if I just love the puppy without cleaning his cut, it wouldn’t get better and if I only cleaned the cut but then was mean to him, it might not get better either."

The grandmother said  "Yes, child. The love shown by each of us helps our insides to be happy.  Healing is not a simple task to be done quickly.  Only part of the task is cleaning and fixing.  The other part is hugs and kindness truly meant, gentleness that heals hearts that are bruised and torn."

The little boy sighed as he stroked the now sleeping puppy and his mother.  He looked at his grandmother and cautiously said "If I get hurt - can I come to you for a healing hug?" 

His grandmother laughed with a gentle low chuckle "Of course child.  If it’s a big hurt, I might have to get help, but if it’s a little hurt I’ll fix it and give you a special grandmother healing hug."

*****

Several years later, when the little boy had grown tall and skinny, he was called to his grandmother’s bedside. She lay in her bed, pale and drawn.  The little boy, now a tall teenager, sat carefully beside her on the bed.  Quietly he whispered:  “Grandmother, I’ve come to see you and have something for you.”  

Clouded eyes turned to see him, her tired weak voice asked  “What is it my child?” He bent over her, tears sliding down his cheeks as he said, "I can’t fix you, but I can give you a healing hug."  His long arms wrapped around his precious frail grandmother as he said good-bye.

His grandmother's low voice trailed away in whisper  "My child, I can die in peace, knowing that my heart has been healed by your love."

“Our sorrows and wounds are healed only 

when we touch them with compassion.”

~ Buddha